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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

It's been five years now

As I approach the church, I see that
Joe and La Toya are gathering up their things, ready to go.Good
morning, I say. How are you?

Fine,
says, La Toya, how are you?

Fine,
too. I want to thank you for being up and
getting ready. Makes my day easier.Joe
just stares at me. I appreciate it. I go to get my coffee. Days going to be easier all ready.

I go about moving the communion table.
Getting the green cloth, the offering plates, the Colombian Cristo Rey with the
damaged hand we place on the table and a few candles. Arcadia’s sisters and other friends and
relatives are arriving with food to set up for the reception afterthe service. Today is the 5th
anniversary of Adham Brenes’ tragic death on the train tracks near the 125th
street station.

Jeremy arrives and begins preparing for
the service. There are so many people, we will sit in our pews and not make our
customary circle.I do incite everyone
to come up front however.

We begin with Adham…and a generation of
West-Park kids’….favorite church song, Sanctuary.

Or first lesson is Leviticus 19: 1-2,
9-18.An explanation of what it man to
be holy. I ask what people heard. Someone says, Obedience.

We look again at these words:

9When you reap the
harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or
gather the gleanings of your harvest.10You
shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your
vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the LORD your
God.

And we notice that even here, in Leviticus, God is already
demanding care for the poor and the alien, demanding that we not consume all
but leave some for those in need. Not as over and above charity, but just
because. No paying farmers not produce.No destroying food that could be eaten to keep prices high.

And we read these words:

15You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be
partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your
neighbor.16You shall
not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the
blood of your neighbor: I am the LORD.

Anna reminds us that there is no such thing as
victimless crime. Prostitution connects to human trafficking. And if you trace
the money you pay for drugs back, it winds up with the deadly drug cartels in
Mexico that have made life along the border a living hell.

And I talk about how the Presbyterian Mission
Agency will be sending to this summer’s General Assembly a motion to divest
from Caterpillar, Motorola and Hewlitt-Packard because of their involvement in
supporting the violent and repressive occupation of Palestine. … you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor

And then in conclusion:

17You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall
reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself.18You shall not take
vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor
as yourself: I am the LORD.

We use as our refrain
for the Psalm:

…in your righteousness give me life.

Our second reading is
1 Corinthians 3: 10-11, 16-23. If we’re going tobuild, we must be clear about a firm
foundation. And that foundation must be Jesus Christ. None of our plans for
rebuilding will succeed if we do not have the right foundation. And then we
read:

16Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit
dwells in you?17If
anyonedestroys
God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you
are that temple.

That’s
what we’re talking about when we sing, Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure
and holy, tried and true, with thanksgiving, I’ll be a living sanctuary for
you. That is the incarnation. We are the dwelling
place of God. If we can believe that, truly believe that, how does that change
how we treat ourselves? And if we see others as the dwelling place ofGod, how does that change how we see them? Treat
them?

Finally, Arcadia reads the Gospel, Matthew 5:
38-48, in Spanish. And I in English.

38“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth.’ I point out that this law was intended to
limit vengeance. To seek equivalence. And if
even that could be applied to us to day. How many multiples of 9/11 have
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost in human life? How many times over have
the Israelis taken life to exact vengeance for terror strikes? If onlyan eye for an eye.

39But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. What exactly does that mean?
But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; which is exact what Jesus did on his way to
the cross.

Then
there is this:

40and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your
cloak as well; In those days, anyone only had two garments
so to take both off would make one naked and thus shame the other. And I
recalled again Rabbi Marshall Meyer stripping naked in the Buenos Aires police
station to free his congregants.

41and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. The
first mile was oppression. The second
mile a declaration of independence,
an expression of indomitable spirit. These
statements of Jesus are as much, or more,
strategic and tactical than moral.

42Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who
wants to borrow from you. Really? In New
York City? Really? One of our members
says, You do what you can when you can.When
I first came to New York City I’d never experienced so much begging. My children
were frightened. I asked my friend Marc Greenberg of the Interfaith Assembly on
Housing and Homelessness what to do. He said that giving money was not
required. But acknowledging the others’ humanity was. It is becoming ignored,
invisible, that causes people who are homeless to lose their sense of their own
humanity.And each a temple, a dwelling place of God.

And then finally,

43“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy.’44But
I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,45so that you may be
children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on
the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.46For if you love those who
love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?47And if you greet only
your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the
Gentiles do the same?48Be
perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

I recalled how hard it was in the 1980’s when
I went to my neighboring Episcopal Church and had to pray for our President
Ronald, after what he was doing in Central America.Or how I told my boys that if they ever go
anywhere and there’s someone there they see and are afraid of or have something
against or are made uncomfortable by, first thing, walk across the room and
offer your hand. It breaks the spell, the power that grabs and holds you. It
puts response back on them . And how in the midst of our Presbytery struggles,
Jamie recommended that I pray for our most virulent opponent. Again, that broke the
power. And this time as much strategy and tactics as spirituality.

We finished our prayers. And then the passing
of the peace. And then paused for the breaking of bread. A stretch for coffee.
And pastelitos, and bunuelitos, pudin de
arroz and pastel de manzana.

And them we gather for our time of memory. A tale has been created with photos and other objects of memory, including the dragon flies that became so symbolic for Arcadia. As she speaks, alone at the podium, it’s clear that even after five years, the wounds are still raw. And some wounds will never heal. I have the deepest respect for the way she has held onto life, has continued to smile and laugh and love and have a home of hospitality where all are welcomed. All fed, all nourished. She s then joined by Adham’s two closest friends, a young woman an d a young man, who share their own remembrances.

Sharing words of remembrance

Deacon James shares a passage

Arcadia’s retelling of thestory of those days, that time out of time,
bring back my own memories. The bus ride back from DC where I was with my
family. The searing, wrenching visit to the morgue to identify the body, Hugo
and I while Arcadia waited. The endless lines at the Ortiz funeral home. The
overflow crowd in the basement of St. Paul and St. Andrews for the memorial
service.

Arcadia smiles as she tells how so many US
friends of Adham ask to visit his grave while on tours that the cemetery
workers think hemust have been a rock
star. This year, his sneakers finally came down from the telephone wires. Urban
shrine gone.And now after five years,
she s ready for this to be the last public memorial.

We gather. Jeremy plays, and we all sing, One
Love…by Bob Marley. Then I ask everyone to make a circle. A very large circle.Before she joins the circle, I ask Arcadia to
look around and see everyone. All the faces in the circle.And remindthem, as my Native American friends once told me, once a circle has been
made, it exists forever. I repeat my traditional benediction. And then one last
chorus of One Love….andthen the memorial is over.

Afterwards, Hugo shares with me how fitting the Bible passages and how hard, yet important, forgiveness is to keep moving forward.

* * * *

Our session meets to review our situation. And
we remain calm. We will do what we can
do in our own integrity. And then wait and see what will happen. That’s all
that we can do.